Spring cleaning again?

I figured after selling our home, which included doing a lot of spring cleaning – getting rid of a lot of stuff – that it was all over for a while.

Think again!

There was a hint of spring in the air – finally. It didn’t last that long, but it was there.

It was enough because soon after I heard the words “we can get rid of a lot more stuff!”

Notice there is no question mark in that!

Luckily my wife was in the kitchen and she couldn’t see my look.

Sure enough, she was aimed at a few things of mine – books (I love books, especially on the Civil War), clothes and more of my Civil War reenactment things.

Of course, I’m putting up a battle.

You can probably guess where this is all going to end, but I won’t give up without a fight.

We got rid of a lot of old games and donated a bunch of DVD’s to the Grinnell library for its book sale later on this year. Even cleared out a few books.

As an extra I even went outside and cleaned out my car, but that didn’t have the effect I was looking for. I’m sure she was thinking something like “it’s about time you cleaned that car out” or something.

She also is thinking of two other things – three cartons of records (I call them classics) and a tub full of photos.

The records are untouchables ever since I got a record player that can record them to a CD.

As for the pictures, no way. But it’s harder to defend them. When my grandmother passed away, my dad went to California and cleaned out her home. I asked him if she had any photos of family members and he wasn’t sure.

So when my dad started to decline a bit – he had Parkinson’s and some dementia – I went and helped him out for a week or so.

While going through things in storage I found a small box full of photos from my grandparents. By this time, he couldn’t remember who most of them were. So I have a lot of pictures who I have no clue who they are.

We’re talking old photos – tintypes, a couple daguerreotype’s and more. My plan is to go through them and put them on a family tree web page I’ve been working on for some time.

They are the only photos of my extended family I have. Photos of my mom’s family are almost nonexistent – a house fire when she was younger burned most everything.